Haney, Dogs shut down Wilson bats in 4-2 win

CAMDEN SOPHOMORE AUSTEN HANEY took a perfect game into the fifth inning as the Bulldogs knocked off Wilson, 4-2, on Monday night.

Wilson right-hander Trevor Edgerton broke three Camden bats.Camden righty, Austen Haney, broke the Tigers’ spirit.Throwing four perfect frames while allowing one hit in six innings of work, Haney and Camden doubled up Wilson, 4-2, in Monday’s nightcap of the Kershaw-Richland Wooden Bat Spring Break Tournament played at American Legion Park in Camden.Haney, a sophomore, set down the first dozen batters he faced --- in order --- before giving up a five-pitch walk to Shawn Jordan to open the bottom of the fifth. Two batters later, his no-hit bid ended when Ethan Dale laid down a one-out bunt for a single.Haney’s line for the night was six innings pitched; one hit and one walk allowed, eight strikeouts and neither of the two runs he surrendered were earned. The win was his first of the season.“Austen threw a heck of a game,” said Camden head coach Denny Beckley. “He was very, very good in hitting the outside corner which the umpire was very gracious in giving to both pitchers tonight. He did a great job of spotting his pitches.“I was very proud of him. Early on, a couple times, he had 3-0 counts on batters and came all the way back. It was a very good outing for Austen and a very promising start for us this week in that we only had to use two (pitchers) tonight.”The second pitcher of the night, righty Josh Hough, closed the book in preserving the two-run lead as he worked a perfect bottom of the seventh.With Haney on cruise control in the early going, fanning five batters and getting five pop ups in the first four frames, the one run which the tourney hosts scored in the second looked huge.After leaving runners hanging on second and third in the first, the Dogs received a leadoff single to left from catcher Nick Tucker to open the second. Jalen Rice came on as the courtesy runner and moved to second on a ground out before stealing third. With one gone, Bennett Harrelson laced an RBI single to center to give the Dogs a 1-0 lead.Wilson waited until the fifth to get something going as, after drawing his leadoff walk, Jordan swiped second. He went to third on Dale’s one-out bunt single. An errant pickoff throw to first allowed Jordan to score the tying run. Dale, who went to third on the play, was left there as Haney recorded a strikeout before getting a comebacker to end the threat.The Dogs answered the Tigers’ challenge by pushing across a pair in the sixth.Cole Irick led things off with a bunt single along the first base line. Pinch-hitter Sam Powers advanced the runner with a sacrifice bunt before Irick stole third. With one gone, Lawson Stokes unloaded on an Edgerton offering for an RBI double to right center. Stokes took third, one pitch later as the first offering from reliever Sam Thompson-Greene went wild. Stokes scored the third Camden run on Tucker’s infield single, a rocket which got on WHS third baseman, Dale, nearly before he could get his glove on the ground.Camden was successful in stealing third base three times in four tries on Monday. The only time Wilson got a runner at third came with one gone in the second. It was a move Beckley later regretted. “I probably ran us out of a big inning there in the second when we had men on first and second and one out and we got caught stealing third before striking out to end the inning,” he said. “We thought (stealing third) was something we could based on what they were giving us earlier in the game … it just didn’t work that one inning. Later on in the game, it helped us a bunch.”Wilson closed to within 3-2, getting to Haney for a second unearned run, thanks to a pair of CHS errors, in the home half of the sixth.The Dogs gave themselves a bit more breathing room with a run in the top of the seventh which opened with Harrelson’s second single of the night. He then swiped second before moving to third on a Cory Brazell ground out. Pinch-hitter Rice then laid down a perfectly placed suicide squeeze bunt, allowing Harrelson to come home without a play being made at the plate.Beckley said he was pleased to see how his team reacted after Wilson tied the game and then, answered a one-run Tiger sixth with a run of its own.“That’s one thing that we haven’t done earlier in the year. Hopefully, it’s a sign of things to come,” he said of answering the call when runs were needed. “It’s very difficult to do.”Camden out-hit the Tigers by an 8-1 count with Stokes, Tucker and Harrelson collecting a pair each as the Dogs strung out their hits on a night in which they exchanged their aluminum/titanium bats for wooden ones.“I thought we did a good job of getting hits; we just didn’t string them together very well tonight,” said Beckley, whose team faces rival Lugoff-Elgin in tonight’s 7:30 p.m. finale of the Camden portion of the eight-team tourney which closes Thursday at Richland Northeast.“We had three guys break their bats, which is sort of an odd situation. But we also had some guys barrel some up, too.“I’m proud of our guys for getting a win to start out the week. This is the first time we’ve won a spring break game in two years.”